A Stranger in a Strange Land...

Well, tomorrow I have an interview with a company for a permanent, full-time position. I don't want to say which company. I don't want them to Google themselves and be directed back to this smutty, blog, full of profanity and monkeys. But I do want to tell you a little bit about the company. I think that they're interesting and what they do interests me. So, I am giving them everything that I've got at tomorrow's interview.

The company a national non-profit. I think I'd be the office administrator for the Midwest office, here in Chicago. Their national headquarters are in New York city. The companies charter is to do fund-raising and support for the largest public universities in Israel. Additionally, my company also serves as outreach for the school, telling people about it and raising public awareness of the school.

Some interesting notes about the school.
-Albert Einstein bequeathed all of his notes to the school and they reside there in the special wing of the library.
-In the 1970's, Frank Sinatra made several sizable donations to the university through the company that I am interviewing with. Accordingly, part of those funds were used to build a rec center/ cafeteria in his name on the school campus.
On July 31, 2002, a bomb was set off in the cafeteria by Hamas, which destroyed a large part of the building, killed 9 people and injured countless others.

So, it's an interesting company that works to help fund and raise public awareness of an internationally well-known University in the Middle East.

Before yesterday, I honestly didn't know that either my company or the university actually existed. And that's not a problem for me. My entire career has been mapped by falling sideways or upwards into jobs that I never knew existed. I'm cool with that.

And I'm cool with Judaism. In fact, I harbor a very deeply felt respect and genuine affection for Jews. There are several aspects of their culture that I very deeply admire. For example, there's a tangible, very real familial bond in Jewish families that I never experienced as I was growing up. There's also a fraternity and care for other members of their culture that is very, very real. In fact, the "Jewish Conspiracy" that I've heard nutty people rail on about can be summarized very succinctly. It's "Take Care of Your Jewish Brother". I don't see anything more devious than that, going on.

And those are my feelings about the "Sons of Abraham" that completely leave out their roles in history or the pop culture. No mention there of my feelings about the holocaust, or the persecution of the bible or of "Schindlers List" etc. My feelings of general goodwill for Judaism comes directly from my own, very healthy, very happy interactions with members of that culture.

My good feelings for them have even infiltrated my own work onstage. A few years ago, when I was just a student at IO, I did a scene based upon the premise that I'd just found out that I was Jewish and didn't know what that meant. My actual, very real ignorance about Judaism kept that scene from building beyond a discussion of "Fiddler on the roof".
A few years later, I played "Latke Pashke", the Hanukkah Elf, in a Stinger Christmas show. As I portrayed him, LP was a good, normal, reasonable guy who wanted to hold to his own Jewish traditions, even if the place where he worked and lived (up on the North Pole with Santa) was a direct conflict with his traditions. In the end of the show, he snuck out of the North Pole in Santa's toy bag and begun a new life for himself in New York City. (sort of.)
Just last month, my troupe, International Stinger hosted a faux, Star Wars Bar Mitzvah. We incorporated as many Star Wars themed / Bar Mitzvah events as we could into the show. I honestly think that if an actual Jew had been there, that they would've been thrilled to participate. I think that they would've seen that their culture was being embraced and celebrated and not mocked.

None of this, of course, will make it's way into the interview tomorrow.

For the interview, I'll shave and clean up and dress nicely.
I'll present my resume and answer their questions.
I'll show that I've done my homework today and know about their organization and the university and what they do.
I'll ask questions about what they need for the job that they're filling and try to get a sense of whether I'll be a good fit or not.

And if all goes well, my goyim ass might be gainfully employed again, as early as next week.

I bet they'll be cool if I want to grow a beard out, while I work there.

TO BE CONTINUED...